Chlorine
by MissMune
Summary: Oneshot. Swimming, one of the classes Dib was least excited about in hiskool. Still, maybe this would be more interesting than he thought, if ZIM was stupid enough to join the class.


A/N: Wow, this took a long, long time to write, and I have absolutely no idea why. Still, I had to write it! I _had_ to. I've been wanting to write this every since I started the horror that is swim. I hate it lots.

It was, well, not therapeutic to write this, more like it was needed. It _needed_ to be written, or I would go insane. Yes, and we can't have that now, can we? Then again, maybe I'd come up with more ideas, eh?

Well, this is a slight ramble, is it not? Anyway, this FF has an OC (zomg, blasphemy, I know). Of course, his personality was kind of hard to get across in this setting. Though, in case you won't notice, he _despises_ water with a _passion_.

That's all I have to say, except I'm pleased that I got my lazy butt in gear and updated…stuff. Mmm…yep.

Enjoy Chlorine!

I dun own ZIM, but I own Mr. Pyran! I own him lots.

----

Dib sighed, looking up at the large door that he would have to enter in just a matter of moments. There was a small plaque next to it. It was obvious it had once been a lovely shade of dark blue, but it was now faded, and chips of paint were peeling off. He stared at the plaque for a moment, reading and rereading the word inscribed upon it: Pool.

There was no one else in this hallway. It was completely empty save for a few candy machines, and Dib. He had arrived a little early, this class was right after lunch, and he had no where else to be. And, as he was early, the door was not yet open. He clenched the plastic bag with his personal affects in it impatiently. He had already been waiting there for a few minutes, yet there was no sign of the swim teacher, or anyone else, for that matter.

With another sigh, Dib leaned up against the pale yellow wall. This was the only hallway painted this color, no doubt out of laziness. He stared ahead blankly, waiting for the teacher to arrive, or the class period to start or _something_, anyway.

Another moment past, and someone turned down the hallway.

Looking up with interest, Dib waited to see who it was. It wasn't the teacher, it wasn't anyone he knew. It was just another boy, coming to wait by the door. He said nothing to Dib, and Dib said nothing in response.

More waiting.

More students came, but there was no teacher. Where the heck _was_ he?

Even more students, Dib watched them approached the door dully. Some of them spoke to each other, but he still said nothing. This wasn't something he was too excited about, this class.

More time passed, Dib didn't know how long it had been, but, finally, another figure began to walk down the hallway. It again, wasn't the teacher. It wasn't anyone he had expected to see waiting outside of this classroom. It was ZIM.

The little alien was walking down the hallway, looking rather proud for no reason Dib could think of. Then again, he seemed to have that haughty looked plastered on him all the time.

"_ZIM_?" Dib hissed, glaring at the alien. Though years had passed since ZIM had arrived on Earth, nothing between the two enemies had changed, except for their height, of course. Dib was noticeably taller, and already much, much taller than ZIM. ZIM had also grown. Though he was still far shorter than the average human in high school, it was enough to get by.

"Dib-**_Beast_**!" ZIM spat back.

The two scowled at each other for a moment. The tension between the two was almost tangible.

"What are _you_ doing here?" Dib finally asked, looking at ZIM suspiciously.

"I am here for your pathetic human 'swim-_ing_'," ZIM replied.

Dib blinked, looking at ZIM with a look of utter shock. "_What?!"_ he asked. "ZIM, do you even know what swimming _is_?"

"Of _course_ ZIM knows what '_swim_-ing' is, foolish Dib-_stink_!" ZIM said, "It is something you normal human worm babies do!" He paused before declaring, "I AM NORMAL!"

Dib continued to stare at ZIM before bursting out laughing. Maybe this would be more fun than he thought.

"Alright!" a sudden strong voice said from down the hallway, silencing the chatter. As the man approached, Dib could see he was fairly young. He couldn't have been very many years out of college. He had short, shaggy, black hair, and a slight tan. He was well built but not extremely muscular.

"Swimming!" he said brightly, as he moved in front of the large door leading to the pool area, opening it with a shiny golden key he had kept in his pocket. He politely opened the door, and waited for the students to shuffle into the pool area.

Dib and ZIM were the last two out in the hall. Grinning, Dib leaned over and whispered, "You won't be able to swim, _space boy_."

"NONSENSE!" ZIM cried, entering the pool area with his eyes shut with pride, "Why should ZIM, _ZIM_ not be able to…" he opened his eyes.

The pool shone menacingly in the florescent light of the room, as though daring someone to enter its depths.

ZIM stared at the mass of water, worm-like tongue stuck out in shock. He was silent for a moment before screaming, "WHAT IS _THIS?!?"_

"Swimming!" the teacher repeated, finally abandoning the pool door and moving to the front of the pool. There were bleachers on the opposite side.

"My name is Mr. Pyran," the teacher said, smiling at the class, "And, before we go over any of the pool rules," he continued, "I must tell you that…"

The class hung onto his every word, waiting for something inevitably horrible. 'There are horrible demonic water creatures living in the pool!' 'There's some sort of disease that will cause your insides to melt if you enter the pool!' 'This is a year long course!'

None of these came, and, instead, Mr. Pyran said, lowly, "I hate water."

Dib stared at the teacher blankly. Whoever heard of a swim teacher that hated _water_?

"So!" He continued, clapping his hands together, "Please make sure you're pretty near drowned before you ask for my help!"

The swim students exchanged uneasy glances. In particular, ZIM looked nervous. He wasn't looking at the teacher; he was staring at the glistening pool.

Dib grinned again, as Mr. Pyran directed them over to the bleachers. He said that he was going to explain what they would be doing for the next 10 week period. What followed was a long, boring explanation of what they should be expected to learn in this class, and what they were required to bring every day.

"So, remember to bring your bathing suits tomorrow," Mr. Pyran concluded, looking quite as bored as most of the students, "Or you'll have to use the _school_'s."

Mr. Pyran yawned and put his arms behind his back. He looked like he wanted the bell to ring.

The majority of the kids looked the same way, and they all clamored off of the bleachers as soon as the bell's high pitch tone reverberated through the room.

Quickly, ZIM scrambled away from the pool area, not before Dib suddenly jumped in front of him, however. He was looking rather pleased with ZIM's predicament. "Looking forward to _melting_ tomorrow, _ZIM?_" he sneered.

ZIM glared at the boy, though he had to lift his head up slightly to meet his gaze, making him less imposing, "**_ZIM _**will do no such thing, Dib…_worm_!" he spat.

Dib raised an eyebrow at the Irken, before looking back to the shining pool of water, "Would you care to test that theory out right now?" he asked.

ZIM blinked, before looking back over to the pool. He spared one last venomous glance at Dib before pushing past him. "Pathetic human _liquids_," he muttered as he left the pool area.

Still grinning, Dib watched ZIM leave, before leaving himself. It was unbelievable that ZIM had signed up for a class without knowing of what it consisted.

----

The next day, Dib found himself impatient for swim class to begin. Once again he arrived early, once again the first one there. Today, however, he had none of the anxiousness he had previously. Today he only had a sort of sadistic anticipation.

The other boys started to pour into the hallway, all waiting for the class to begin. Most of them looked as they had yesterday. ZIM wasn't there yet. With a little disappointment, Dib realized he might have found a way to get out of the class. Water allergies seemed like a valid enough reason.

Luckily (for Dib, anyway) ZIM _did _arrive. To Dib's surprise, however, he didn't look nervous like one would imagine. Instead he looked like one who had just succeeded in doing some tremendous task.

Dib was about to say something to dispel this look, when Mr. Pyran arrived, looking as relaxed as he had yesterday. "Ok, class," he said, opening the door and putting a stopper in it. "Today's the first day of actual swimming, as I told you yesterday," he continued, casually leading them over to the boy's locker room. "You will be changing in there everyday as soon as you arrive. Wait outside of the pool until I say you can get in."

With that, he gave the class a shooing gesture and went to go sit on the bleachers. Everyone clamored into the locker room; no one had forgotten their swim suits.

After a few moments of hurried changing, a few boys rushed back out into the pool area, Dib being one of them. The others, presumably the more nervous ones, changed more slowly, and filed out within a few more moments.

Finally, everyone was out into the pool area.

"Alright," Mr. Pyran said dully, "Everyone into the pool."

Dib jumped in, along with a few others. Immediately there were cries of, "It's cold!" It was cold, Dib observed, but not nearly as cold as the others were making it out to be.

The few that were waiting behind climbed in warily. The shallow end was filled up with bodies, with the exception of ZIM, who was still outside of the pool looking at it with wide eyes.

Mr. Pyran walked over to where the boys were; only noticing ZIM after a moment. "Afraid of water?" he asked, not unkindly.

"_ZIM_? _AFRAID_? NEVER!" ZIM cried in defiance.

Mr. Pyran raised an eyebrow at the green boy, "Then get in," he said.

ZIM looked irritated, but climbed in none the less.

Dib had been expecting a mad fit of screaming and smoking, but nothing of the sort came; ZIM looked quite fine, despite being surrounded in what was, essentially, acid.

"Now," Mr. Pyran said, looking the class over, "Do all of you know how to _float_?"

Dib blinked, who _didn't _know how to float?

Yet, there were a few boys who raised their hands, after a moment of looking around the class for other people who shared their problem.

Mr. Pyran sighed, shaking his head, "You really shouldn't be in this class, then. You should have signed up for _beginner_ swim."

A moment past, where everyone was just half submerged in the water, staring at their teacher. "Alright, everyone lie on their backs, and try not to sink."

The vagueness of Mr. Pyran's command was astounding. Still, Dib shrugged and did so. It wasn't very difficult at all. It required no effort. He simply had to lie there, on his back. He tried to get a look at the others, but found that he couldn't bend his head in such a way so that he could see them. He could hear them, however.

There seemed to be no troubles, from what he could here. It was almost completely silent, until there came a sudden thrashing from somewhere near the edge of the pool.

"It's not that difficult, ZIM," he heard Mr. Pyran say, patiently. "All humans possess a natural buoyancy. You'll be able to stay afloat if you try."

"Yeah, except he's _not_ human," Dib yelled, turning around with some difficultly so that he was standing.

ZIM was still struggling to stay afloat, appearing not to have heard Dib. Dib wondered if he had ever heard Mr. Pyran.

"What do you mean?" the teacher asked, looking at Dib curiously.

He hadn't called him insane - that was a good sign.

"He's an _alien_," Dib said, for what was perhaps the _thousandth_ time.

"Oh, not _that_ again!" another boy said, gaining footing at the bottom of the pool. "You're _crazy_!"

"He's an alien, eh?" Mr. Pyran said, "That why his skin's green? And why he has no ears or nose?"

"Skin condition!" ZIM garbled, still trying to float. Apparently he had finally heard snippets of the conversation.

"He's _lying_!" Dib accused.

"Lying pig-_filth_!" ZIM shot back.

Mr. Pyran shrugged. Apparently he didn't care, "Whatever. Just try to float." He said this with the air of one who really just wanted to relax, and not deal with hundreds of kids each day.

Dib sighed, why were the ones who noticed things always the ones that didn't care?

And that was how they spent the first forty-five minutes of class time: floating.

Finally, it seemed Mr. Pyran had had enough of that particular activity, and started pulling out small kickboards, chucking at them at each student. Dib's hit him in the head by accident.

"Kicking!" Mr. Pyran said, once his hands were empty of any kickboards. "Get in a lane!"

Dib sighed, and waded over to the lane on the far left side of the pool. No one else was there, and no one joined him.

"Alright, everyone in a lane?" the teacher asked, looking about at the lanes. "Hmm," he said, once his gaze fell upon Dib's lane. "A few of you will have to come over to this lane," he indicated towards Dib's.

No one moved.

"You, you, and you," Mr. Pyran said, pointing to a few boys, seemingly at random, "Over there."

The boys groaned, and joined Dib. They all glared at him, as though it was _his_ fault that they had to be in the same lane as him.

"Now," he said, grabbing a kickboard himself, "You're going to do the scissor kick. It's a simple, commonly used kick, that just involves moving your legs up and down, like a pair of scissors."

He didn't elaborate any farther.

"The first person in the lane, go to the halfway point of the pool and wait for the rest of the people in your lane to arrive," Mr. Pyran continued. He seemed to pause, looking at the students. He blinked, "Well? Go."

"Oh…" Dib said, kicking his way to the half-way point. It wasn't very hard. The others followed.

"Now swim back," Mr. Pyran said, watching them carefully.

Everyone did so.

Immediately, he moved over to the storage closet and got out several pairs of flippers, handing them out to certain people, on being ZIM. He then returned to the storage closet, and got out a floating device, which he also gave to ZIM, who looked furious.

"One more time," Mr. Pyran said, "Then you can head to the locker room."

Dib sighed, he hated this class already, and it was only the first _real_ day. He angrily kicked his way back to the center of the pool.

Dully, he looked back to the others in his group. They were heading over at a steady rate.

And that was when he heard the screaming.

Even Dib looked slightly surprised for a moment, though he knew exactly where to look. He wasn't incorrect either, there was ZIM, smoking slightly as he tried to pull himself out of the pool.

Whatever trick he had used to not incur the horrible effects of water had obviously worn off, as evident by his horrific screams. He finally managed to get himself out of the pool, and the screaming had subsided slightly, though he was smoking terribly, and looked to be quite a lot of pain.

Dib grinned and chuckled, though almost immediately stopped, due to the looks he was getting.

Mr. Pyran looked the most shocked of anyone, yet, at the same time, he managed to keep an air of someone who really just doesn't care very much at all. Still, he didn't look like he knew exactly what to say. He merely stood over ZIM for a while, watching him smoke and writhe on the floor.

Finally, he rubbed the back of his head and looked at the rest of the class, "Uh, well…I guess you can go in now."

Dib blinked, amazed at how uncaring his teacher was. He shook if off, though, and headed for the nearest ladder out of the pool. One of them happened to be close to him, and he exited the pool without trouble.

He didn't, however, head back to the locker room with the rest of the class. Instead, he headed over to where Mr. Pyran was knelt over, still watching ZIM.

Dib watched the two for a moment, before Mr. Pyran finally seemed to realize that he wasn't alone. Stretching, he stood up and turned to Dib, "I said you could go in," he yawned.

"Yeah, I know," Dib said, kneeling over ZIM, severely tempted to push him back into the pool.

Immediately, he noticed there was a sort of thin, clearish-white residue on ZIM. It was peeling off in certain places, the places that were smoking. The residue looked oddly like…

"_Glue_, ZIM?" Dib asked, almost chuckling. "_That's_ how you protect yourself from water?"

ZIM hissed, regaining his composure slightly, and managing to stand up, wobbling slightly. He looked like he was going to say something, but Dib interrupted him.

"You know glue corrodes in chlorine, don't you, _ZIM_?" he said, slyly.

Mr. Pyran was behind them, watching without interest. He didn't seem to care that the two students were arguing (sort of), or that one of them was smoking.

ZIM's eye twitched for a moment, but he immediately recovered, "Of _course_ the **MIGHTINESS** of _ZIIIM_ knew this _thing_!" he said defiantly.

Dib raised an eyebrow at ZIM, and was about to say something before Mr. Pyran interrupted.

"Alright," he said, loudly, "Go dry off and change or something."

Dib glared at ZIM, who returned the glare, before turning around and moving towards the locker room. He didn't really need to dry off, it was rather hot in the pool area for the pool itself being so cold, and most of the water had evaporated off of his skin.

ZIM seemed to notice this, and gave Dib a curious glance. Suddenly, Dib saw from across the room, that he had asked Mr. Pyran something.

Mr. Pyran shrugged and said something back.

After that, ZIM was grinning.

Scowling, Dib entered the locker room. ZIM was up to something.

---

Dib waited outside the pool area once again. Today, however, he wasn't the first one. He had been busy finishing schoolwork while he was eating during lunch. He had forgotten to do some trivial piece of homework at home, since he was too busy trying to figure out what ZIM had been planning.

Sadly, he had found out no such thing.

Irritably, he waited, and waited, and waited for the class to start.

Oddly, he had the feeling that he didn't have to wait as long as usual, even though he _was_ there later. Mr. Pyran had arrived sooner, he just knew it.

He came in, looking much the way he normally did, and opened the door for the class. ZIM hadn't arrived yet, but Mr. Pyran wouldn't allow Dib to stay out in the hall and wait to see what he was up to.

What if it was dangerous?

With much anxiousness, Dib changed and hurried out into the pool area, just in time to see ZIM arrive. The bell had just rung.

The little alien had a horrible look of smugness on his face, more so than usual. Dib glowered at him, "ZIM, what are you-"

He was suddenly cut short by the stampede of boys out of the locker room. Apparently, they had all finished changing at once.

Mr. Pyran watched all of them approach the edge of the pool, before turning to ZIM. "Go change, ZIM," he said indifferently.

ZIM didn't move. He, instead, produced a round device from the palm of his hand. Dib had an inkling it was some sort of bomb.

Immediately, Dib dived towards ZIM, but it was too late, ZIM had already thrown the object into the pool.

For a moment, nothing seemed to happen, and everyone seemed to relax. Then, suddenly, the _entire_ pool dissolved into a puff of vapor. Poisonous vapor.

Dib coughed as the mixed of chlorine and water vapor filled his lungs.

"Now, Dib-_beast_ do you not see that-" ZIM began, in his usual manner. It was unlikely that he understood what he had just done.

Wheezing, Dib pointed to ZIM accusingly, managing to bark out, "YOU _JERK_!" before collapsing onto the grimy floor.


End file.
